All employers with 250 or more employees are now required to publish an annual report of their gender pay gap statistics. This is part of a Government move to reduce the pay gap between men and women.
Overview
The first disclosure has to be made by 4 April 2018 based on data collected on 5 April 2017. Thereafter this will need to be reported annually, not just on the employer’s website, but also a dedicated Government website, meaning that the information is available to all.
With less than a month to go until the deadline, thousands of employers have not yet provided their figures.
The report needs to highlight:
- The difference between the mean hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees (‘the mean gender pay gap’)
- The difference between the median and the mean hourly rate of pay of male full-pay relevant employees and that of female full-pay relevant employees (‘the median gender pay gap’)
- The difference between the mean bonus pay paid to male relevant employees and that of female relevant employees (‘the mean gender bonus gap’)
- The difference between the median bonus pay paid to male relevant employees and that of female relevant employees (‘the median gender bonus gap’)
- The proportions of male and female relevant employees who were paid bonus pay (‘the proportions of men and women getting a bonus’)
- The proportions of male and female relevant employees in the lower, lower middle, upper middle and upper quartile pay band (‘the proportion of men and women in each of four pay quartiles’).
If an employer fails to comply with the legislation it could result in enforcement action taken by the Equality and Human Rights Commission and possibly cause damage to their reputation, as seen recently at the BBC, which resulted in six of its leading male presenters agreeing to take pay cuts after Carrie Gracie’s resignation as BBC China editor.
Report narrative and pay policies
Whilst employers will have to publish the differences in pay between male and female employees, there is no legal requirement to publish a narrative explaining their gender pay gap figures.
More information can be found on the Government’s website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/gender-pay-gap-reporting
You will also have to provide data to HMRC here:
https://www.gov.uk/report-gender-pay-gap-data
and once completed you can view results here:
https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Viewing/download
For further information please contact Ken Davies below:
